TBH I don't know how they handle. He never let anyone try his boats out.
One trip out he brought an open canoe and a sea kayak like that example photograph. He chose to go out on the sea in the canoe and he looked like it handled well. An issue with wind as you'd expect when we got out a bit.
It was the only trip I went with him using his own built boats. We tended to be what Americans call steep creek kayakers but that's only what the decent rivers near us are. Plastic boats for them.
I think he got plans from somewhere and tweaked them. I wish I had a photograph of those boats. That image was just an example of the shape. His boats were a lot nicer.
I would say a work of art. Expensive to make too, because he bought only the best wood from a specialist supplier. I believe the supplier normally sold to cabinet and marquetry companies. High end wood.
He then wasted a lot because he obsessively matched the colour and grain of the wood either side of the centreline.
As I said it was all works out art. I've been looking online to see if there's any images online of boats with the same quality and attention to detail but nothing close so far.
His paddles were very good too and quite reasonable for quality wooden paddles. He could make canoe and kayak paddles. The feather on the kayak ones were to customers requirements. That worked well for a few with wrist pain so couldn't turn the paddle as far with each stroke comfortably. They were reasonable too, not even high end paddle prices.
Unfortunately because of my bad memory for names I can't Google him to see if he makes commercially. Really can't remember his name but know what he looks like. We had been members of the same clubs for different outdoors activities over a few years. Mostly climbing, walking and canoeing.
One trip out he brought an open canoe and a sea kayak like that example photograph. He chose to go out on the sea in the canoe and he looked like it handled well. An issue with wind as you'd expect when we got out a bit.
It was the only trip I went with him using his own built boats. We tended to be what Americans call steep creek kayakers but that's only what the decent rivers near us are. Plastic boats for them.
I think he got plans from somewhere and tweaked them. I wish I had a photograph of those boats. That image was just an example of the shape. His boats were a lot nicer.
I would say a work of art. Expensive to make too, because he bought only the best wood from a specialist supplier. I believe the supplier normally sold to cabinet and marquetry companies. High end wood.
He then wasted a lot because he obsessively matched the colour and grain of the wood either side of the centreline.
As I said it was all works out art. I've been looking online to see if there's any images online of boats with the same quality and attention to detail but nothing close so far.
His paddles were very good too and quite reasonable for quality wooden paddles. He could make canoe and kayak paddles. The feather on the kayak ones were to customers requirements. That worked well for a few with wrist pain so couldn't turn the paddle as far with each stroke comfortably. They were reasonable too, not even high end paddle prices.
Unfortunately because of my bad memory for names I can't Google him to see if he makes commercially. Really can't remember his name but know what he looks like. We had been members of the same clubs for different outdoors activities over a few years. Mostly climbing, walking and canoeing.
A Bushcraft UK trip to Estonia to learn to carve a dug out canoe would be fantastic.
Now that is an idea !
The plans for the dugout is to finish it before the next summer, travel down a river (I have my eyes on few spots) and build a wooden lavvu. If the recourses are there, then a small log cabin or a Sami gamme.
And that could be the perfect place to have a bushcraft camp/course to build another dugout boat.
I will be keeping it in mind when selecting the building site for the cabin/lavvu!
Looking on the pictures I now understand why you are taking the effort of creating the canoe.
Seems the ladies love them!
The last picture looks like a Same winter ‘tent’, permanent one.
Seems the ladies love them!
The last picture looks like a Same winter ‘tent’, permanent one.
Absolutely! Just imagine a hairy-like-a-bear dude rolling down the river in one of these dugouts, smelling like 100 campfires. I mean, ladies, tell me - is that not irresistible?
The winter "tent" is a wooden frame (similar to lavvu poles in some ways) covered with birch bark and turf/soil. It should be pretty warm in the winter time with a nice fireplace in there and a wooden floor.
About a quarter of my ‘boys’ were Same. They tought me 90% of what I know about enjoying the Arctic.
They taught us to build those to use in winter as a basecamp.
They taught us to build those to use in winter as a basecamp.
Boats, river travel, wood and earth houses. All paleo talent that we need to remember.
Beardmaster: a question. In Estonia and district, do you ever find collections of "house pits"
as we see all over North America =
Except for the coast, most First Nations in North America built a winter village of pit houses.
1-2m deep 6-10m diameter, 4 posts to support a log roof and 30-60cm of excavated soil on top of that.
Some styles even have a covered floor draft tunnel as a cold air feed for the fire.
The most recent one that I know of was finished in Prince George BC just a few years ago.
East of the Rockies, Wanuskewin was a Cree winter village which was occupied continuously for more than 6,000 years.
Wanuskewin has a website, an absolute dream of a south-facing protected ravine location even with it's own buffalo jump.
The most recently carved dugout canoe (cottonwood log) that I know of here was floated in the summer of 2016.
into the Fraser River at Prince George. They were very common less than a century ago.
Beardmaster: a question. In Estonia and district, do you ever find collections of "house pits"
as we see all over North America =
Except for the coast, most First Nations in North America built a winter village of pit houses.
1-2m deep 6-10m diameter, 4 posts to support a log roof and 30-60cm of excavated soil on top of that.
Some styles even have a covered floor draft tunnel as a cold air feed for the fire.
The most recent one that I know of was finished in Prince George BC just a few years ago.
East of the Rockies, Wanuskewin was a Cree winter village which was occupied continuously for more than 6,000 years.
Wanuskewin has a website, an absolute dream of a south-facing protected ravine location even with it's own buffalo jump.
The most recently carved dugout canoe (cottonwood log) that I know of here was floated in the summer of 2016.
into the Fraser River at Prince George. They were very common less than a century ago.
Why wasn't I born somewhere with more wilderness (any wilderness). I can't imagine doing half of what you guys are talking about. Not much in the way of logs for such canoes, not got the free access rivers for one and no right to paddle somewhere and make a camp out of local resources.
Estonia and the Baltic states, as well as Finland were all under the ice sheet in the last ice age. That ended about 12 000 years ago. The Ice retreated in the area, leaving the land open. From that melting there formed a huge lake, called by the geologist as Baltic ice lake. This dates back to 12,600-10,300 years from now.
It is more than likely that by that time, hunter-gatherers were already here but no permanent settlements have been found from that time. And it is more than likely that they came here by the waterways of that time with dugouts like this.
The oldest found site dates back to 8900 BC.
There are many finds of arrow and spear heads, clay pottery etc but settlement sites are not big in numbers. At least from what we know.
That also makes sense in my mind- these people who came here were hunter-gatherers. That way of living leaves very little trace of where have you been.
We all know the rule leave-no-trace and I am sure many of you know that you can leave very little to no signs to where you have been camping.
Of course, 11,000 years back I doubt that any of these people worried about leaving a clean site. There was no need as everywhere you went, it was the endless wilderness.
I did a test last year - made a fire and left the ashes and fire scar just as it was after the fire died out. This was chosen right before a heavy rainfall so the hazard of root-fire was minimum. A little watering on the surrounding ground was also done. Before the snow, few weeks ago I went to visit that site and there was almost nothing left. At first glance I could not tell where I had made the fire.
Another good example is to look at Nenets people and others reindeer herding tribes who still lives in a lavvu. There is almost nothing to go by when they move camp.
So finding little evidence of settlements tells me that most people who came to these lands, were a hunter-gatherers.
Later in history (9000-7000 BC) they were starting to make more permanent settlements and it took off from there. But the hunter-gatherer way of living was practiced for a long time. Even after the farming of the land and animal herding, there were number of people who were still hunter-gatherers. That precent of people were high. Hard to say what, exactly but we are talking more than 20%.
There are way-way-waaay more find from the later periods of time. The most iconic sites are the fort sites from the viking age. And these are all over the place, open for anyone. There is a lot of history known about them, lots and lots of finds that sometimes are directly from a historical accounts.
Sadly, nothing we know of from the neanderthals (makes sense, doesn't it- this place was under many km of ice at that time).
What I would like to add is the thought that these dugout canoe - Haabjas has survived for over 12,00 years. No doubt they must have changed in some shape or form, but there is not a lot that could be changed.
And another thought on top of that - I made this with a help of a master boat builder and we used chainsaws for the big cuts. Now imagine doing that with stone-age tools. That is totally insane!
And another thought on top of that - I made this with a help of a master boat builder and we used chainsaws for the big cuts. Now imagine doing that with stone-age tools. That is totally insane!
Would you not have families or groups making them? More hands might work and all that. I think it said it carries a few ppl so if you make them big you are likely making it to serve a group and that group is there to help.
It's still a lot of work and effort but I do wonder about the group effort side of such lives. We're basically a cooperative species (within localised groups).
It's still a lot of work and effort but I do wonder about the group effort side of such lives. We're basically a cooperative species (within localised groups).
Exactly, people did things as a community.
Today, having 3 person working on the 5,5 meter dugout is about the maximum. Two of them do axe-work while one is resting or doing something else. This way the axes are always working, non-stop.
How it might have been way-way back is hard to say. Stone axe heads are perfectly capable for the job but I imagine it takes way-way longer.
I might have to try to make one with stone-age tools to get a better understanding.
What you said has been very much on my minds when being out in the wilderness. I am usually out there alone.
A lot of people go out for a trips of long time (or what we today consider a long time), but it never was like that for the early people. They had a community. Sure, there was the ones who were cast out in some cases and that was basically a death-sentence. One can not make everything by himself. One can not be good at everything.
Having other people - community, gives us opportunity to focus on one or few things and be able to become masters at them.
I am very much a loner. I do not like to be around most people for very long time. But having people around with different skills is needed for survival. Be it directly (a woodworking friend etc) or indirectly (going out and buying what you need from a store - someone made the stuff we use).
Thank you for the paleo history notes. Lots of parallels with ours.
I regret that I was unable to visit the canoe carving site last summer in Prince George, BC.
Winter camps, winter villages, are the standards of paleo living here.
Common practice in this day and time is still to move to the rivers for the salmon harvest.
Even for those communities on the coast. Where they live isn't necessarily where the salmon rivers are.
Go to the fish camp. Work for 4-6 weeks, go home.
Abandoned village sites are all over the landscape.
About all you find here would be a group of depressions in the ground, maybe knee deep.
When the wood frame and roof collapsed, the soil topping fell into the house pit as well.
I regret that I was unable to visit the canoe carving site last summer in Prince George, BC.
Winter camps, winter villages, are the standards of paleo living here.
Common practice in this day and time is still to move to the rivers for the salmon harvest.
Even for those communities on the coast. Where they live isn't necessarily where the salmon rivers are.
Go to the fish camp. Work for 4-6 weeks, go home.
Abandoned village sites are all over the landscape.
About all you find here would be a group of depressions in the ground, maybe knee deep.
When the wood frame and roof collapsed, the soil topping fell into the house pit as well.
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